While ATI have been enjoying a string of successes at the expense of their rivals, NVidia, it seems that ATI's old Achilles' heel, driver issues, may be about to create new problems. According to various emails received by MegaGames and to a variety of forums, the new Catalyst drivers, hailed by ATI as the single biggest software upgrade in its history, are causing some cards to overheat. The same messages also suggest that the OMEGA version of the drivers also create the same problem.
The problem is not present across the ATI board range but seems specific to the following cards:
All Radeon 9800 XT's
All Radeon 9800 Pro
All Radeon 9800
All Radeon 9700 Pro soft-modded to 9800 series.
All Radeon 9700 soft-modded to 9800 series.
All Radeon 9500 soft modded to 9800 series
These reports have not yet been independently confirmed and the problem, if indeed there is one, may have to do with specific system configurations. The persistence of some of the messages we received does however force us to raise the issue in order to warn ATI owners of the possible threat to their boards and systems.
It is up to ATI then, in the new spirit of comprehensive customer support, when drivers are concerned, to clear up the issue and either reassure owners or release some form of corrected drivers.
MegaGames will keep you informed of any news from ATI or ATI-owners.
